Nathaniel Bacon

Nathaniel Bacon (2 January 1647-26 October 1676) was an English colonist and Virginia frontier planter who led "Bacon's Rebellion", a multiracial and populist uprising against Governor William Berkeley which collapsed with his death in 1676.

Biography
Nathaniel Bacon was born in Suffolk, England in 1647, the son of wealthy merchant parents. He emigrated to Virginia at a young age and became the owner of two frontier plantations on the James River, and he was appointed to the Governor's Council due to his cousin's friendship with Governor William Berkeley. Bacon came to oppose Governor Berkeley due to Berkeley's refusal to disrupt his profitable fur trade with the Native Americans by clearing more lands for white settlement, as well as due to racial laws which disenfranchised African-American indentured servants. In April 1676, Bacon led a "rabble crew" of armed landless whites to redirect their anti-elitist anger to the Susquehannocks, leading to Governor Berkeley charging Bacon with treason. This led to Bacon's Rebellion, during which Bacon's rabble fought against Berkeley's militia of mercenaries. In September 1676, Bacon announced the liberty of all servants and negroes, and poor whites and enslaved blacks joined hands to rise against the white elite. Bacon led 500 rebels to burn down Jamestown, forcing Berkeley to flee. When Bacon died of dysentery a month later, the rebellion fell apart, and Berkeley pardoned the white rebels and promised liberty to the blacks, and the remaining rebels were crushed over the next few years. During the 1680s, to prevent another uprising, the government transformed black indentured servitude into chattel slavery.